1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to the field of telecommunication systems and, more particularly, the present invention is directed to a method for activating protected functions in a communication system which has peripheral equipment connected to the communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Peripheral equipment, such as, for example servers, are connected to communication systems to provide for easy switching of calls for connected communication terminal equipment incoming at the communication systems of a communication network and for the activation of performance features.
For example, an ACL interface (application connectivity link) present in both equipment locations controls the communication exchange between the communication system and the peripheral equipment. In the communication system, a central controller comprises a program structure which reports switching-oriented events of incoming calls to the peripheral equipment with event messages. The peripheral equipment executes switching-oriented and administration and maintenance oriented instructions communicated via the ACL interface. The switching-oriented and administration and maintenance oriented instructions initialize and control the functions and performance features in the communication system.
These communication systems include functional capabilities and performance features which clearly should be activated and executed only by authorized persons. For example, these features include overriding communication connections that already exist or logging, i.e. recording information communicated via a particular communication connection. The activation and control of these functions thereby proceeds with the peripheral equipment via the ACL interface.